----Jay----

Sucking in a breath of air, I sit straight up, snapping out of a nightmare. I grip the tree branch I was sleeping on tightly, closing my eyes. The wind reassures me I'm not in the cage.

I'm in my tree, I'm safe. Nico doesn't know where I am.

----Jacob----

Brushing a strand of my fabulous, caramel brown hair aside, I make a grand entrance into first period, sitting down.

The desk tips to the left as I take a seat in it. One of the back legs is shorter than the others, making it move with my every movement. It's never bothered me though, it's better than some of the other desks in here.

Next to my desk is one of the three windows lining the plain, white wall. The teacher hung nothing up on the walls, leaving them bare. The lights shine blindingly bright and give you a headache if you're in the room for too long.

"Why so cheerful?" Lily asks as I sit down next to her.

"It's a beautiful day! The birds are singing, the sun is shining, I'm alive," I say.

"It's cloudy, you can't see the sun," She points out.

Despite Lily's negativity, her eyes glow brilliantly, a rainbow filling them. She doesn't wear contacts to get all the colors, she was born with rainbow hair and eyes. Her hair flows over her shoulder down to the bottom of her ribs, the tips of each strand a different color from where they end.

Her slim figure takes up half of her chair. Slim isn't a strong enough word to describe her size.

Her spindly fingers wrap around her pencil, every bone mostly visible. She wears dark-gray pants, hiding her stick-like legs. One guy once hit her leg, and instead of her getting hurt, his hand hurt from hitting a hard bone.

"You're always so pessimistic," I say.

"That's life for you, Shorty," she says, picking off a strand of hair on her loose, cyan shirt.

"Everyone to their seats, I have to take attendance," Insane Teacher says. "Today, we will be talking about magic."

Insane Teacher got her name from her inane lessons. Her usual topic has something to do with death, crimes, and stuff you shouldn't do in general. Her deadly, sapphire eyes say 'I dare you to tell the authorities.'

Lily's eyebrows rise in confusion. "There's no such thing as magic," she mutters to herself.

"True love is magic," I say in a dramatic and inspirational voice.

"Not that kind."

I look down disappointed.

"I'm talking about shooting fire from your hands and flying."

"Psh, yeah right. That would've been useful years ago. Nobody has magic," Sam, the oldest of the two Broteez brothers, says.

"Yeah. Science says so," Lily backs up.

"Wow, dream killer," I say.

"Lily, go stand in the front of the room," Insane Teacher says.

"Why?"

Insane Teacher takes out a knife, "Does it matter?"

Shakily, Lily makes her way to the front, her steps rigid and careful.

"Now, as I was saying, an odd phenomenon has gone around lately. I'm ninety-seven percent sure this will work," She says, then hurls the knife towards Lily's head.

Lily doesn't move a muscle. Just before it hits her, the knife stops in midair, floating inches away from her face.

"So, what was that you were saying Sam? Magic doesn't exist?"

"Nice trick, not going to work. It's called an illusion, not magic."

Lily puts her index finger on the end of the blade, pushing it away from her face.

"Well, not my fault you wish you had powers when you were younger to fix your situation now. I'm not the one who made you get a job when you were ten."

"Lucky guess," Sam says, quieter.

"Wolves can't be that bad."

The blood drains from his face. "How do you know that?"

"Magic."

"What if you were wrong and I died?" Lily asks.

"Then you would've died. Too bad, your loss."

The bell rings, and I follow Lily out, jogging to keep up with her. "You're magic!"

"Magic is dangerous."

"No, it's awesome."

She maneuvers around a group of kids taking up the entire hallway. I manage to stay with her.

"What is up with everyone hating magic?"

Ignoring me, she goes to her next class, giving me no choice but to head to study hall.

Two hours later, fourth period rolls around. Grabbing lunch, I sit next to Jay, my heartbeat speeding up from his presence.

Jay is twice the height of me, towering over the entire grade. Similar to Lily, he's remarkable skinny, even worse than Lily. His dandelion hair is always a wreck, leaves, and grass entangled in the curls.

"Jay, guess what?"

As usual, he doesn't respond.

"Magic is real."

"What?" He looks up at me, his intense, electric blue eyes cutting into me. His deep voice startles me. "No, you've lost your mind."

"You actually responded," I marvel. "And I haven't lost my mind, it's true."

"He's right, Jay, I made a knife float in midair," Lily says.

"No, it's been too long. Why is it affecting people now?" His already pale face gets paler.

"What are you talking about?" I ask. "Do you know what caused this?"

He doesn't dare say anything else, looking down at the table again.

"Jay, what do you know?"

"Okay, back off, Jacob. You're wandering into personal territory," Lily says.

"But--"

"You should stay away from me, it's not safe," Jay says.

"No, w--"

"Leave while you still can, you don't want to be caught around me."

"J--" He looks up at me, something I can't decipher filling his eyes, telling me not to push it. I shut up.

The rest of the day, I'm left wondering what Jay's hiding. As if I needed something else to stop me from concentrating. I already have a hard time with school as it is.

When I get home, I toss my book bag down and collapse on my bed, staring at the clock.

3:06.

I sigh, rolling over.

What is it about magic that bothers Jay? What does he know?

This seems to be a common thing. I'll mention something that gets Jay's attention, and I'll be thinking about it for the rest of the week, sometimes two.

I don't know how he does it. I can get everyone else to tell me their problems, what's different? If he doesn't want to talk to me ever, then why does he bother hanging around me? I mean, I don't mind it, I'm fine with it. I just want to know why.

An image of him flies into my mind, making my stomach do flips. His hair is a mess like always, his eyes speaking for him... He's too cute, I can't take it.

Stop thinking about it, just get started on homework.

Glancing at the clock, my eyes widen and I sit straight up.

3:05.

I could've sworn it was past that.

You know what? It's Jay. Whenever he's on my mind, I start forgetting things like this.

Just to be sure, I count to sixty in my head. The clock turns backward one minute to three-o-four.

I blink a few times, waiting for it to be wrong. Nothing happens.

I went back in time two minutes. It's magic, just like Insane Teacher said.

A grin spreads across my face. This is going to be fun.

Hi, this is my first book-like book, so sorry if it's bad. (I wouldn't blame for thinking so.)

Anyway, I've had this idea in my head for...4 to 5 years, and I'm not even in high school, so just imagine that. At least once a month I have a huge revelation about it, and how something lines up with something else and I didn't even know.

So it's thought out!...And that's about it. You can't expect a middle schooler to be some amazing writer, even if I try. Trust me, I've done all I can to get better, I taught myself the next few grade-levels of ELA (And math, but that doesn't matter right now), and read books that my sister in college credit courses reads for class. I even helped her with her homework. (Beat that.)

POINT IS! If I did something wrong in here, tell me. I can't learn everything by myself. That sister I mentioned shot me down for thinking of writing a book. So there goes my chance of asking her to teach me some ELA... I can't teach myself everything, I might be smart for my age, but I'm not Albert Einstein ELA style. So yeah...Point out my mistakes!

Anyway, vote, comment, share, etc.